A second transhumanist RFID-chipping nut has emerged from the academic community at the University of Reading.
Professor Kevin Warwick became famous years ago after claiming he was on the way towards becoming a cyborg after he implanted a simple RFID chip in his arm, which allowed sensors to register his presence and perform …

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My constructive input...

Editor?

*groan*

Having first become aware of Warwick through the generally dismissive coverage provided (in an occasionally obsessive manner) by El Reg, I was pleasantly surprised by what I read of the second stage of Project Cyborg. The claims about the first stage were clearly media-oriented guff, but once it got to the stage of actually trying to do something interesting with neural interfaces the whole thing moved into the realm of potentially-useful science.

Now it sounds like we're back in the "press release for gullible non-technical types" zone again. Shame, that.

I recall an interview with an actual AI researcher

Who described the shenanigans at the University of Reading as an "embarrassing distraction". And yet I can't recall his name, but everyone knows about Captain Cyborg and (now) his Legion of Low Wattage Minions.

Sad, but it's the first to market that gets the fame and floozies. There are floozies, right?

Re: I can do that too!

Jesus wept....

What a complete waste of freaking time and effort!

I hope this was sponsored by big corps and not UK Gov education money? I will be even more peeved if it was my money being wasted on this tripe! People like Warwick are the boil on the bum of IT and tech research!

Careful there!

So...

...in order to catch a computer virus I just have to slice my head open with a scalpel, insert a circuit, and then get sewn up, but I will still be immune to the virus because my brain doesn't run windows.

Oh, FFS, Kevin Warwick has passed the mantle - I wondered why we hadn't heard from that dipstick for a long time - he's probably crashed

Tagged human != transhuman

All these academic nutjobs are doing is making themselves victim of our own technology. Much akin to what governments and corporations are doing, really. That's, in fact, exactly my complaint with all of the RFID applications, and a number of other ventures to boot. Biometrics come to mind.

What I'd like the transhumanism movement to do is twofold. First, find ways to counter this sort of abuse of technology. Second, find actual, useful ways to merge human and technology, investigate what needs to be done to make that sustainable over the long term and in the face of adversity (starting with power failures), and then help us all do it, should there still be a reason to once we found out the price.

We invented our box of technological tricks to empower us, not to use it to suppress ourselves. Yet it is us that's making a box of pandora out of it. How truly wonderful these contributions to academia.

Ahhh, Captain Cyborg...

...that's more like it.

Stories about cyber-numpty Warwick reminds me of the El Reg of yore, when certain senior staffers weren't obsessed about Google/BBC bashing and mundane Apple rumours/press releases (it's difficult to tell which are which nowadays) were an irrelevance, not the basis for half the articles on the site.

Lest we forget..

all i see is a universal key for spys

like why not write virus code to open any rfid door or cell like that guy said... i mean ton of code and exploits but for reals military put some people on that (id bet you a penny there already are) and make a way cool electronic lockpick

Makes you wonder what their interview procedure is like

err...

"...Professor Kevin Warwick became famous years ago after claiming he was on the way towards becoming a cyborg after he implanted a simple RFID chip in his arm, which allowed sensors to register his presence and perform simple actions such as opening a door. ..."

The RFID chip was a proof of concept, you always forget to mention the next bit where he had a neural sensor implanted which allowed him to wirelessly control a robotic hand via just moving one of his hands.

Am I the only one ...

When this goes really wrong

This all just roll-your-eyes bullshit from the familiar bullshit factory at Reading. It will take a nasty turn if the Daily Mail print it and some poor guy refuses to have a pacemaker for fear of getting a computer virus, then dies of heart failure.

Embarrassed to have studied there

Thirteen years later...

Given the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the press about the "Hundreds of thousands who can't find places on degree courses." (Forcing them to stand in dole queues without degrees in fine art appreciation to keep them warm at night.) It's nicely clear that the entire university of reading could be nuked to hell and back, without setting human progress back a single heart beat.

Thirteen years after Blair's "Education Education Education" bullshit, this is what we've been left with in British Academia. Half a nation that thinks this was worth doing, and another half nation who thinks that this is all that engineering research is good for.

Shant!

Mature Discussion? On The Reg? No!

This "Human Infected with PC Virus" episode is empty publicity seeking, with absolutely no academic worth. It's proved nothing, but stoked more than a few drunken pub conversations by beer-educated "experts".

If Reading is happy to have this crap pushed out as being representative of their work, then they deserve all the scathing that man can level against them.

AV

Maybe some enterprising student can regain a little dignity for their institution by adding an anti-virus scanner to the RFID door security to keep the malware out of the building - or maybe lock them in quarantine somewhere out of the way.

I'm pretty sure the first guys getting pacemakers, cochlea implants and various other medical hitech have a better claim to being the first cyborgs.

mans a fucking idiot

Capt'n Cyborg and the boy witless.

Reading glories in stats, cookery and body mod fetishes? I suppose someone has to (clean the telephones) but its sadly disappointing that its promoted with such enthusiasm. I would keep quiet about that if it was my uni.